Rogers Media uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. Learn more or change your cookie preferences. Rogers Media supports the Digital Advertising Alliance principles. By continuing to use our service, you agree to our use of cookies.

We use cookies (why?) You can change cookie preferences. Continued site use signifies consent.

Blogs

We can thank Queen Victoria for this: a long weekend that marks the unofficial start of summer. And while one of her descendants is getting married this weekend, the rest of us will either be heading to the cottage or puttering around in town. One thing is for sure though, we are all destined to have fun this weekend, whether we are royals or not. So take your crown and scepter and rule the weekend.

Events

Fireworks
The season of fireworks starts this weekend with light shows at Asbridges Bay Park and Canada’s Wonderland. The fireworks at Wonderland is at 10 p.m. on Sunday, while the light show at Asbridges is at 10 p.m. on Monday.

Royal wedding
Get your fascinators ready! The city will be buzzing all the way from Windsor Castle as royal watchers take in the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle this long weekend. The couple will be married Saturday at noon local time, which is 7 a.m. ET. Watch the wedding live on CityNews.ca starting at 6 a.m.

David Mirvish is hosting a massive viewing party at the Princess of Wales Theatre from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. As many as 2,000 people will pack the venue for the sold-out event, to experience the wedding projected live on a big screen. After the ceremony ends, Harry and Meghan will take a horse drawn carriage procession through Windsor as husband and wife.

Artfest TorontoArtfest Toronto is taking over the Distillery District for its 12th annual event this Victoria Day weekend. The outdoor arts show celebrates painting, photography, sculpture, fine craft and live music from Canada’s top artists. It runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday through Monday. Admission is free and there will also be art workshops for kids all weekend long.

Spring BeerFest TO
Escape to the cottage-in-the-city this weekend at the Spring BeerFest TO at Fort York Garrison Common. The event will serve up 17 top-notch cold beers, delicious food from Toronto’s most popular food trucks, roasted marshmallows, campfires and outdoor games. The 19+ BeerFest runs on Saturday and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Queen Victoria’s Secret
Brewer’s Backyard is back with its annual Victoria Day event — Queen Victoria’s Secret — where the beers available are only revealed when the event starts. Queen Victoria’s Secret will be held at Evergreen Brick Works, and will feature Ontario breweries, including Shacklands Brewing Co, Muddy York Brewing, Big Rock Brewery and Collective Arts Brewing. There will also be food, and a “first call” special during the first hour of the event, which kicks off at 11 a.m. on Monday.

Victoria Day at Fort York
If you’re looking for some family fun and history this Victoria Day, head on over to the Fort York National Historic Site.Guests will be able to join a guided tour, take part in soldier’s drills, or watch historic cooking demonstrations in one of the oldest kitchens in the city. Visitors can also stop by the Fort York Visitor Centre and explore interactive exhibits on the history of Toronto and the Fort. The Victoria Day event runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Regular admission applies.

POPnology at the Science Centre
A new exhibit is opening at the Ontario Science Centre this weekend — POPnology showcases how people connect, move, play, live and work. It also looks at how books, movies and games have inspired the world’s greatest technological innovations. Visitors will be able to test drive robotics, rovers and sci-fi inspired tech, as well as work with a robot arm and see the world’s first 3-D printed car. POPnology opens on Saturday and continues through August 6th.

City of Toronto activities
Not everyone is getting away to the cottage this long weekend. Others will be staying in town or heading to Toronto to soak in what the city has to offer. Ferries to the island will be running every 15 minutes, and to avoid the rush, you can purchase your tickets online. Splash pads also start running on Saturday. Most of the city’s historic sites will be open on Sunday, but only Fort York National Historic Site and Spadina Museum will be open on Monday. Anyone who enjoys outdoor sports can use the golf courses or tennis courts. Click here for a full list of Toronto-run activities.

On Saturday, May 19th, Prince Harry will wed Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle’s St. George’s Chapel.

Watch a live stream of the the royal wedding on CityNews.ca starting at 6 a.m. Eastern.

Some 79 international broadcasters, including CityTV and outlets from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, are planning to report on Markle and Harry’s wedding. More than 5,000 U.K. and foreign media and support staff have credentials to cover the ceremony and reception.

Americans in particular – some 46 U.S. broadcast affiliates will cover the wedding – are obsessing because the bride is one of their own. The E! TV entertainment network plans to devote five hours of air time to the wedding that matches a California girl with a British prince.

While Markle was raised in the Los Angeles area, she also has a Canadian connection, having lived in Toronto since 2011 while filming U.S. legal drama “Suits.”

The 33-year-old prince, who is fifth in line to the British throne, and the 36-year-old divorced American actress met through a mutual friend in 2016, bonded during a camping holiday in Botswana and managed to keep their relationship secret from the media for several months.

It won’t be the first time that a British royal has married an American, or a divorced person. In 1936, Edward VIII famously abdicated after he was forced to choose between the monarchy and his relationship with twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson.

Windsor Castle, west of London, is one of Queen Elizabeth II’s main residences. The 15th-century chapel is as historic but more intimate than Westminster Abbey, where William married Kate Middleton in 2011.

A new way of handing out parking tickets is bringing in millions of dollars in revenue for the city, but drivers are questioning whether it’s a valid tactic, or just a cash grab.

Up until this past August, parking officers had to place a bright yellow ticket on your windshield for the charge to be valid. But since then, parking enforcement officers have had a new tool at their disposal – the mail. Officials have been sending out 4,000 to 5,000 “drive away” tickets a month.

All a parking enforcement officer needs is a licence plate and the model of the vehicle to issue a ticket.

It will say “drove away” in the top corner and it comes with an additional $10 fee on top of the fine.

Drivers CityNews spoke had mixed reactions.

“It’s fair for the municipality to do that, absolutely when the infraction is just, but at the same time, it opens up a whole can of worms,” says Carmine Ciofani.

“You don’t know where the parking officer came from, so it could be that you just pulled up, stopped for a second, and drove off, and they’ve issued you a ticket,” adds John Buffett.”

Anthony Fabrizi, manager of revenue services for utility and parking operations at the City of Toronto, said it’s a valid form of ticketing and that the extra $10 fee is justifiable.

“If we find you parked illegally, and the officer can capture the information, we can send a ticket to you,” he said. “The municipality is charged a fee by the Ministry of Transportation to retrieve the [car ownership] information,” explains Fabrizi. “The extra charge is really a cost recovery, and the municipality doesn’t make any extra money.”

The city says the average fine for a parking ticket in Toronto is $53. Officials expect to issue 60,000 drive-away parking tickets this year alone, bringing in $3.1 million in fines.

The city says drive-away tickets are meant to protect parking enforcement officers from being clipped by cars that try and drive away.

The Toronto Police Service says there were 45 assaults on parking officers in 2017, including 24 assaults between January and May of last year. For the same period of time this year, there have been nine assaults. It’s not clear if those charges stemmed from drivers trying to evade a ticket.

It’s not the kind of semi-permanent “installation” you want to see pop up in your neighbourhood: heaps of garbage left there by winter and windstorms.

A Scarborough woman, who doesn’t want to be identified, says the detritus that collects in areas near Kennedy Road and St. Clair Avenue East is not just a seasonal problem. She has been complaining about it for the last 15 years

“I just want it cleaned up,” the woman told CityNews.” I live here, but even if this was just an industrial area, why do we have this? Why do thousands of commuters have to look out the window of a GO train and see this?”

The resident admits while some of the garbage has drifted or blown in, tires, bags of garbage and other debris are often intentionally discarded.

And it’s not just near the tracks; it’s also along the sidewalks — despite prominent “no dumping” signs.

The woman said the frustrating thing is no one is taking responsibility. She said she gets bounced back and forth between the City of Toronto, the TTC, Hydro One, Toronto Hydro and Metrolinx.

Metrolinx spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins said it is sometimes difficult to determine who owns which property and, therefore, who is responsible for cleaning it up.

But Aikins said Metrolinx is responsible for the section of the rail corridor in question inside the fence. She said this is the time of year when they get resident complaints because this is when garbage becomes visible after the winter.

“We have 500 kilometres of rail that have lots of areas that are a concern this time of year,” she said. “So we coordinate a spring cleanup and we try to coordinate with our partners like CN and CP and municipalities and whoever owns that property.

“Just in the middle as we’re starting our cleanup this year, we had a huge, huge windstorm. Which distributed garbage and trees and roofing all over the rail corridors right across the region, so it really increased the amount of cleanup we had to do this spring.”

The city said crews do their best to keep on top of litter and do an annual comprehensive city wide cleanup in the spring. But it admits illegal dumping is a big challenge because cleanup is costly and enforcement is difficult because the person has to be caught in the act.

The office for Coun. Michelle Holland said it’s aware of the garbage issues in the ward and has made repeated phone calls to the various agencies to ensure they follow up.

Almost Done!

Please confirm the information below before signing up.

{* #socialRegistrationForm *}
{* socialRegistration_firstName *}
{* socialRegistration_lastName *}
{* socialRegistration_emailAddress *}
{* socialRegistration_displayName *}
By clicking "Create Account", I confirm that I have read and understood each of the website terms of service and privacy policy and that I agree to be bound by them.

Sign in to complete account merge

Almost Done!

Please confirm the information below before signing up.

{* #registrationForm *}
{* traditionalRegistration_firstName *}
{* traditionalRegistration_lastName *}
{* traditionalRegistration_emailAddress *}
{* traditionalRegistration_displayName *}
{* traditionalRegistration_password *}
{* traditionalRegistration_passwordConfirm *}
By clicking "Create Account", I confirm that I have read and understood each of the website terms of service and privacy policy and that I agree to be bound by them.